


The Conception of Lily Jane Cobb (Or How River Almost Got Jayne Thrown Out The Airlock)

by kashmir



Category: Firefly
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-11-08
Updated: 2005-11-08
Packaged: 2017-10-08 16:01:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/77353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kashmir/pseuds/kashmir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Timing is everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Conception of Lily Jane Cobb (Or How River Almost Got Jayne Thrown Out The Airlock)

**Author's Note:**

> I started out this morning with the intent to write a happy, smutty fic for [](http://literarylemming.livejournal.com/profile)[**literarylemming**](http://literarylemming.livejournal.com/), since she gifted us all with the fantabulously heartbreaking fic [Daddy's Little Girl.](http://www.livejournal.com/users/literarylemming/217334.html#cutid1) This is what happened instead. I'm quite sure I made Jayne into a wuss. It is also NOT smutty at all and I'm not sure I like it so I'm just putting it out there before I go insane. Also stole some lines of dialog from a deleted _Firefly_ scene. Painfully un-beta'ed as well. Please don't beat me with sticks.

It had started out like any other dinner. Book and Kaylee had managed to procure some fresh fruit and vegetables the last time they had been planet side and they had used the last of them that evening to make a semblance of a feast. Everyone was eagerly tearing into their portions except River. She sat beside Jayne, silently watching him and not touching her food. He was desperately trying not to notice her, hoping and praying everyone else -- especially her brother -- would continue to be oblivious to her preoccupation with the merc.

Not that her preoccupation was something new. Not to Jayne anyway. Hadn't been since she'd come to him in his bunk and then come on to him, much to his surprise. He hadn't even been able to put up any kind of a protest before she was straddling his lap and, well, Jayne was only a man after all.

That had been three months ago and she hadn't stopped her nightly visits to his bunk, slipping out of her quarters and padding silently through the ship's corridors to his. Her brother, and everyone else on the ship for that matter, were all so caught up in their own lives and problems, they never noticed River and Jayne become more cordial to one another. Never picked up on the longing glances she bestowed upon him, nor the hungry gazes he aimed her way.

Now, Jayne will admit when it first started up between them, he had thought it had been just two lonely people way out in the black, helping each other scratch an itch. They hadn't even been two weeks into their affair (he figured that was a good a word as any) when he realized they managed to carry on whole conversations in his bunk before he ever got to sexin' her up. With her making sense and everything.

A month and a half into it, one night when the sex had been softer and more gentle than the merc thought himself capable of, he realized as he was drifting off to sleep with the _feng-le_ girl snuggled deep into his chest, that he loved her. Gorramit, he was in love with the crazy girl.

River had snuggled deeper into him, placing a tiny kiss on the scar of her making and whispered, "She loves him, too."

The month and a half since then had seen Jayne desperately trying to come to terms with his fate. He knew now that whether he wanted it or not, River was a part of his life and he didn't particularly feel like getting rid of her now, not after he'd gotten used to all her 'gorram non-sense.' River would smile and nod but know the truth -- that deep down Jayne was scared. Of losing her, afraid of admitting he was human enough to feel emotions like love... Afraid of so many things.

She loved him all the more for it.

It had also seen Jayne trying to convince River that they had to come clean about their relationship. To tell everyone -- most especially Mal and Simon. She would only shake her head, tell him they would know when the time was right and then take to distracting him with her nimble fingers and graceful body.

Which is why Jayne was slightly nervous that night. River had been acting all kinds of strange for about a week now, which was saying something. Wasn't even her usual kind of strange, either. More quiet and withdrawn -- even at night in Jayne's bunk. Oh, she was still a wildcat (he had the marks to prove it) but she wasn't talking even to him, like she usually did.

Suddenly, she shifted, rising from her seat. Jayne watched her out of the corner of his eye, watching as she got up and then (_Oh, ta ma de!_) she was plopping herself down onto Jayne's lap, wiggling her way around until she was comfortable. She laid her head on his now tense shoulder and smiled.

The room was suddenly deathly quiet.

Jayne knew that she figured the time was right, right now. Hell, he thought, least my last meal was a half decent one.

"Jayne?" Mal asked, knife pointing to the girl practically purring in his embrace (aw, hell when had he wrapped his arms around her?). "You care to explain why our little albatross seems to think you're her personal teddy bear?"

Jayne cleared his throat and snuck a glance at River. She was beaming up at him in that way she had, making him feel like he could do no wrong. He sighed, figured _to hell with it_, and kissed her forehead before looking up at Mal and the rest of the stunned crew.

"Maybe cuz I am, cap'n."

Mal sat his knife down at the table while Simon gaped at Jayne like a fish out of water, trying to form words and failing miserably.

"Well," said Mal, obviously still trying to figure out when exactly hell had frozen over. "Would you care to maybe elaborate a mite more about this whole confusin' situation we seem to find ourselves in. I think myself and the good doctor here would especially like to know what's been goin' on between the likes of you and that sweet girl sittin' on your lap."

Jayne took a deep breath and closed his eyes, gathering his wits, knowing he was going to fail miserably at this whole explaining business. He felt a small, cool hand touch his rough cheek and opened his eyes, finding River's immediately.

"Don't worry, my Jayne. She'll explain, make them see. Make them understand," She patted his cheek and then turned to face not Mal or Simon but Book. Who she then gifted with a gorgeous smile.

"We would like you to marry us now."

The table erupted into shouts and expletives.

"Oh, a weddin'! River! Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

**"Marry???!?!** _Mei mei_, whatever he may have done to you-"

"I ain't done nothin' she didn't want me doin' to her, doc. 'Sides, I-"

"Jayne, I don't like where this is goin' for you. Seems to me, there's an airlock out back of my ship with your name on it-"

"Mal, please, let him finish before we do anything rash."

"Thanks, 'Nara. Mal, look, I was goin'-"

"This is way more fun than the soup thing, lamby toes."

"I don't seem to find too much amusement out of Jayne taking advantage of a young girl, husband."

"Now, gorramit, I didn' take no advantage of nobody!" Jayne yelled as he slammed a fist on the table, effectively shutting everyone up. River smiled at him, covering his clenched fist with her hand till he unclenched it, then slowly lacing her fingers with his. She turned to look at Mal, who was now standing at the head of the table, breathing through his mouth and looking like he was desperately trying not to just shoot Jayne where he sat.

River looked back up at Jayne and said, "Let me explain. We must make them see."

Jayne looked at her, knew from her face she was determined but not sure... Especially seeing as how she had just told Book to marry them.

"Please, Jayne?" She pleaded, eyes wide.

"Fine. But make it quick an' try and make it so's they don't toss me out the airlock. Or shoot me."

River smiled at him then turned to face the crew, each of them wearing faces of varying degrees of incredulity. Simon and Kaylee, Mal and Inara, Wash and Zoe, the Shepherd.

"We're in love. Two by two... Everyone has someone, a match, a mate, a dopple. Jayne is my mate. River's man. He had no choice. Fate was decided for us. No say so in the matter," She said, watching Simon and Mal the closest. Knowing everyone would take their reactions as a gauge for the own. "Jayne helps me. Helps keep them away. Always makes it quiet. Makes it so she can hear herself. Always finds her. Is her rock. Makes her less crazy girl, more regular girl. Like everyone else."

She paused, making sure everyone had gotten her point.

"Jayne did not take advantage of her, either. Other way around. She took advantage of him. Made him see, though. Made him hers. All hers," She turned and smiled at Jayne briefly before continuing, turning to her brother. "Simon, you have to understand. She will always be your _mei-mei_ but she is now also someone's _bao bei_. Things constantly evolve, change. Never staying the same. Natural progression of life. Girl meets boy. Boy and girl fall in love. Get married. Have babies. Keeps going, procreation. Continuation of the human race."

Simon and Mal look at her, noting the way Jayne's eyes hadn't left the girl on his lap, his large hand clutching hers like a life line. Mal didn't much care for it but he couldn't even use his no-shipboard-romance rule anymore, seeing as how he and Inara had broken that rule themselves -- not the rest of them knew it but still. Mal was many things but a hypocrite wasn't one of them. Didn't seem right but then again, stranger things did happen. Wash and Zoe and the doc and Kaylee, for example.

Mal sighed then met Inara's gaze over everyone's head. Knew she knew what he was thinking. She gave him a small smile and a nod.

"Jayne, I don't much like this but... River here seems determined to keep you as her very own and as long as you and Simon don't have no objections... Not much I can do. Bunch of love-sick fools runnin' 'round here, turnin' my ship into a gorram pleasure cruiser, though. I have half a mind to..." Mal trailed off when he caught Inara giving him a Look. "Never mind. Look, I ain't too happy about it but I ain't gonna be throwin' anyone out of the airlock. Least not today. Just don't make me have to look at it. All that much. Or, you know. Ever."

Simon was still speechless. He knew his sister was a woman now, knew if from a scientific standpoint as well as just knew it from looking at her. She was no longer a girl. And for whatever the reason, she seemed to have picked Jayne for her... to be hers. Not that there were many choices aboard _Serenity_ but if what she said was true, and Simon thought it might be, Jayne had a calming effect on her, helped her filter things out. She had been more lucid the past while back, only having one or two episodes that ended in her being having to be sedated. Simon thought back on these incidents, realizing they had happened when Jayne had been out on a job and away from her.

_Hunh_, he thought.

"Doc? You ain't said nothin.'" Jayne finally spoke, looking as nervous as Simon could ever remember seeing the rather unshakable man.

"Well," he started, taking Kaylee's hand and squeezing it under the table. "I, like the captain, don't particularly care for the whole idea too much. But if River is happy and if what she says is true, then I really don't think there is much I can do or say to dissuade her. She always has been a spoiled brat."

He smiled at his sister, getting one in return before Jayne spoke again.

"Doc?"

He looked at the big merc before responding. "You have my blessing, Jayne. She loves you, for whatever the reason. I do expect you to take excellent care of her and if you ever, ever hurt her, the captain throwing you out of the airlock will look like child's play when I'm done. _Dong ma_?"

Jayne nodded, not sure if Simon actually was capable of murder or torturing somebody. But, if it was one of his sisters... Well, he wasn't taking any chances, that's for damn sure.

River smiled at Simon and then Mal. "Very important, Captain and brother both approve."

River turned to Book once again. "Things are a little out of sequence. She didn't see that. Met Jayne but didn't immediately fall in love. Having a baby but not married yet. Would you please marry us now? We have gotten the patriarchal figures approval. And Jayne will not allow his daughter to be born out of wedlock."

Once again, the room was stunned into silence.

Jayne prodded River until she was looking at him. "Somethin' you wanna be tellin' me here, lil' one?"

River brought her hands up and cupped his scruffy face. Smiled at him and said, "Time is right, my Jayne. I am in the family way. Now we _have_ to get married."

He leaned down and planted a kiss on her, making her toes curl inside her huge combat boots, the two oblivious to everyone else in the room.

Jayne lifted his head and pulled River into his chest, holding her tight while she snuggled deep in his embrace.

"So, Preacher man, whaddya say? Gonna marry us and let her make an honest man outta me?" Jayne asked, grinning from ear to ear.

~*~

They were married by Shepherd Book in the cargo bay two days later, nine months to the day before their first daughter was born.

_End_


End file.
